Business Reporter

The sharemarket has finished marginally higher today as investors awaited the outcome of a meeting between European finance ministers to determine the next move on Greece’s debt.

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index rose 11.2 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 4424.2, while the broader All Ords gained 12 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 4443.5.

Among the sectors, industrials rose 1.3 per cent, gold miners rose 1.1 per cent, materials added 0.7 per cent, while consumer staples and consumer discretionary both inched up 0.5 per cent. Telecoms bucked the trend, falling 1.1 per cent.

‘‘It was quite a positive week last week and that just seems to have flowed over, with risk assets like stocks, commodities and currencies performing pretty well, so I guess just a shift from the defensive assets into the growth assets,’’ said Darryl Conroy, markets analyst at Suncorp.

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Investors were generally cautious as eurozone finance ministers are set to meet for the third time in two weeks to discuss Greece’s aid program.

Greece, after a €130 billion bailout was approved earlier this year, is waiting on several loan instalments to help ease its crippling debt, but so far European leaders have failed to come to an agreement on the details of the plan.

‘‘It’s an absolute merry-go-around [in Europe], it just seems to come up every couple of months. Once again, don’t expect any real, long-lasting solutions. Hopefully markets are just hanging out for what they want to hear,’’ said Mr Conroy.

BHP was the biggest contributor to the local market, jumping 0.8 per cent to $34.01, and was responsible for a push of 4.18 points on the ASX 200.

Domain provider Melbourne IT hit a nine-month low after the company announced its earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) would be 10 per cent lower in 2012 compared with 2011. Shares dropped 10.9 per cent to $1.55.

The Australian dollar traded within a tight range today, holding at the around $US104.60, having broken through the $US1.04 barrier last week.